Is Frontier airlines worth it?
 

Hope this is an ok forum to post this on. Recently I've been looking around for a small flight to Cincinnati to Atlanta (round trip) and I happened to see Frontier's cheap prices. I've read quite a few bad reviews but also a few OK ones, I'm trying to see if it'd be worth the risk. I'll need the flight in October so I'm kind of limited on time to be saving miles or waiting for cheaper deals. Thanks for any replies!

Yes its fine - save the money and use it to treat yourself in Atlanta.

My son & his family had a bad experience with F9. Their return flt from DEN-SLC was cancelled and they said you'll "have to wait until tomorrow". They needed to be back to work so had to rent a car. No love from F9. They won't use them again. I'd stick with a larger airline that has more flts.

Is Frontier airlines worth it?
 

Thousands of people fly them without a problem. You don't say what your other option is, but if it is the only option that makes sense, there's no reason it should be a problem. just make sure you understand what the relevant fees might be in making comparisons.

Most of the time they are OK. Their airport and on board service are certainly adequate and their on time record is reasonable. The big problem with Frontier occurs when something goes wrong - bad weather, mechanical issues, for example. If they have to cancel a flight, they do not have any backup aircraft and they will not transfer you to another airline. Usually, they have only one flight per day (or less). So if they have to cancel a flight, you can get stuck for a day or two. But honestly that does not happen very often.

If cost is your major criterion, and if it will not create a crisis if you don't get to your destination at your scheduled time, there is no reason to avoid them.

Welcome to FlyerTalk, danny_sw.

Be aware that Frontier has been turning into one of those "budget" airlines (like Spirit) where the fares are cheap but you have to pay extra for things that are free on "mainstream" airlines. What exactly that is constantly changing, as Frontier is evolving from one of those "mainstream" airlines into one of those "budget" airlines.

And as JerryFF pointed out, they only tend to have one flight a day per city pair (if you're not based in Denver, at least). But besides that being an issue if you cancel, it can also be an issue if there's a problem (weather or equipment) that delays your first leg of the journey, since if you miss the connection you may have to wait a full day for the next connecting flight. (The longer your connection time in the connecting city is, the lesser this risk is. And of course it's the least risk if you happen to have a nonstop flight, but I doubt Cincinatti to Atlanta is one of those.)

There's a whole forum on FlyerTalk dedicated to Frontier:
and this thread might end up there eventually, btw.

Frontier is as safe as any other carrier. Statistically, they're slightly less reliable. They have low customer satisfaction ratings but I put that down mostly to customers not understanding what they're getting into w/r/t extra fees and unbundled service / comfort options.

It's just a different product from the full-service network carriers. Some people don't get that, and flip out when they find their $49 Frontier ticket doesn't buy them the same network resiliency, service recovery, etc. they would have on a $200 fare on Delta or Southwest. You don't go to Jack in the Box, though, and expect Ruth's Chris service levels. Live and learn.

Fine to fly Frontier with two caveats:

1. Watch the ancillary fees for carry-on bags, seat assignments, etc. -- that "bargain fare" may turn out to be less of a deal than you think.

2. Be prepared to roll with the punches when weather hits or planes break -- sometimes for a day or more. I've flown my kid to and from college on Frontier with no problem, plenty of slack in our schedule. But I wouldn't fly F9 myself on business, or in any case where I had to be somewhere at a specific time.

Piggybacking on what sdsearch and BearX220 said.

Frontier often has great deals ($15 one-way) especially out of cities like Atlanta, Austin, Chicago, etc. You DO have to pay for your luggage (~$20 to check a bag and ~$25 for a carry-on---on way), so unless you're traveling extremely light, you're going to automatically tack on $40-50 on whatever the quoted fare is. You also have to pay for your seat, but I recently learned that you can purchase your ticket without selecting your seat and save a few bucks.

It's still a great deal depending on the scenario. Say you're a couple and you only take one checked bag. Or this past May, I flew RT from Austin to Atlanta for about $60RT, including the cost of my seat and carry-on (which is pricier than checking).

Just don't expect free snacks and all kinds of perks. It's on-par with Spirit-type airlines.

Welcome to Flyertalk danny_sw and iajayi.

As this is specific about the airline [F9] we'll move this post.

~beckoa, co-moderator Information Desk

I fly a couple of F9 flights a year for one reason: they are often significantly cheaper than any other airline on that route. If that means I get to take a trip I wouldn't otherwise then yes, they are worth it.

However, I had a miserable experience on a redeye in their new slimline seats which means I won't fly them overnight again. But for day flights...without hesitation.

Hi CMK10,

Since I am taking a red eye next month, just wondering what your experience was and if you might have any tips on mitigating the discomfort of the slimline seats... Bring your own cushion?

Out of curiosity, did they dim the cabin lights so people could sleep? Did you find that most people gave up trying to sleep and just stayed up the whole flight? What route were you on?

I have been flying Frontier almost exclusively since May (10 flights so far), and I have had my share of delayed flights, mostly due to weather when every other airline was also experiencing problems. Frequency is pretty low on a lot of routes so if a flight is cancelled you may need to lay over for another day (or more) or make alternate arrangements.

They seem to frequently have very low last minute fares.

If you can travel with a backpack that will fit under the seat it can be incredibly cheap. If you must have a lot of baggage, then other airlines are often cheaper.

Their in-flight product is fine, the cabin crews have been great. Their website is a little wonky but slowly getting better.

The phone customer service is hit and miss. Sometimes you get someone who is great and know their products and their systems, sometimes you get someone who can't really communicate and doesn't understand what your are saying (not the words, the concepts).

The one caveat is to understand what your are buying. There are potentially a lot of fees.

• Soft Drinks and Snacks cost money (and they don't take cash).
• Checked bags cost money.
• Carry-on bags cost more than checked bags.
• Seat selection costs money.
• They don't have a tool free number.

You do get a Free Personal Item (14x8x18) which must fit under the seat, although the overhead bins are often nearly empty and they don't object to you using them.

All fees are cheaper if you pay early and more expensive at the airport and even more expensive at the gate. Plan ahead.

Do yourself a favor and do not fly Frontier. I flew it for the first time last August, because they had the best fare from SFO-IND (1 stop in DEN). Disaster all the way. Delayed for 1.5 hrs in SF, got to DEN, another delay for at least 2 hours and they let us sit in the Aircraft for those hours. And then they CANCELLED it! All passengers were told to unboard, and we were just left waiting at the Airport for another hour. And then they gave us a piece of paper, giving 2 options: Option 1: Cancel reservation online and get a refund. 2. Book another flight, pay for yourself, and apply for reimbursement up to $400/passenger.
No compensation whatsoever, not even a meal voucher. Not even an apology!

The next flight on United was the next day at 9.20, at $398 from DEN-IND. I had to purchase the tix for the 3 of us. And we were left stranded all night long at the airport.

So that was on August 11. It is now September 15 and I still haven't received the ~$1,200 that I spend out of pocket.

Oh they got us a $200 voucher each, but you can't even pay me to fly with them again, ever.

BTW, this is an email I received from after twitting them since I didn't get any response for the reimbursement. The canceled flight was on August 11, I finally received below email on August 28, and it will take 3-6 WEEKS for them to reimburse the $1,200 that I had to use to buy United tickets. Frontier only flies the next day at 8pm and would get to IND 2 days later, so it was out of question to wait for that flight.

And I saw a few families with very young kids and babies with desperate looks on their faces, some of them said they had no money to buy another tickets. How this is even legal, is beyond me.

Email received on August 28:

We have requested a check from accounting in the amount of $927.90 for your airfare expense. This amount reflects the cost of your United tickets in the amount of $1,182.30 less your Frontier refund of $254.40.

We have also provided a refund of $25 for the bag fee paid in association with the canceled flight segment. Your reimbursement check will be sent under separate cover; please allow 3-6 weeks for processing. The refund of $254.40 will credit to your Visa ending in XXXX and the refund of $25 will credit to the Visa ending in 9858 in 7-10 business days.



At Frontier, we realize how important you are to our future and that's why resolving our service issues is critical to our success.



We value your continued support and look forward to serving your future travel needs, under more pleasant circumstances.



Sincerely,



Colette

Customer Care Team

Frontier Airlines

This is a little like warning, do not eat at any of the 35,000 McDonald's worldwide, ever, because I visited the one in Caribou, Maine and my coffee was cold. One experience?

Bringing a neck pillow at the least probably couldn't hurt. They did indeed dim the lights but still sleeping in those chairs was agony. Like I said, I won't be doing it again.

Just to inject a little actual information into this discussion.

Here are the frontier stats for JULY from DoT:

On Time 5,774 71.37% N/A N/A
Air Carrier Delay 474 5.86% 32,254 21.92%
Weather Delay 25 0.31% 1,254 0.85%
National Aviation System Delay 1,151 14.23% 57,740 39.23%
Security Delay 0 0.00% 0 0.00%
Aircraft Arriving Late 614 7.59% 55,927 38.00%
Cancelled 33 0.41% N/A N/A
Diverted 19 0.23% N/A N/A
Total Operations 8,090 100.00% 147,175 100.00%

Sorry for the formatting.

Here is the Southwest data for the same period:

On Time 83,575 73.54% N/A N/A
Air Carrier Delay 8,805 7.75% 489,665 30.06%
Weather Delay 797 0.70% 57,282 3.52%
National Aviation System Delay 4,602 4.05% 198,561 12.19%
Security Delay 37 0.03% 1,033 0.06%
Aircraft Arriving Late 14,595 12.84% 882,517 54.17%
Cancelled 839 0.74% N/A N/A
Diverted 400 0.35% N/A N/A
Total Operations 113,650 100.00% 1,629,058 100.00%

Note that Southwest cancelled flights at nearly double the rate as Frontier, although the impact was probably much less since Frontier does not offer the frequency Southwest does.

Not really a very instructive point as Frontier operated about 7% the number of flights Southwest operated (8k versus 113k) and Southwest has a robust network (Few if any WN stations offer service to only one destination) plus heavy frequencies, whereas the F9 schedule is heavy with one-a-days or even less frequent service and almost everything goes to or through DEN.

When you look through the statistics, Southwest has the more reliable and accommodating network.

Recent Frontier Airlines Elite Experience and Tips
 

Just got back from a trip flying Frontier SFO-DEN-DCA and back as an F9 Elite with my wife and two kids (3 year old and a lap child). I wanted to post my experience in case it helps others who want to know what to expect.

Check-in Experience

With F9 Elite status you get free seat selection and carry-on (for you only, not for others in your party). You also get priority check-in, priority security, and priority boarding. To avoid paying the $72 it would have cost to pay for seats together I decided to choose my own seat and then avoid assigning the other two seats and waiting to see where they were placed at check-in. I was curious if the seat assignment system would put the seats together with mine since I was the only seat selected in my row at check-in . At check-in around T-24 the two unassigned reservations were assigned seats at 20E, 20F (SFO-DEN) and 20A, 20B (DEN-DCA).

Since my seats were now apart from theirs I went back into my Frontier account and moved my seat to be by theirs. Strangely, even after I did that the Boarding Pass didn't update with the new seat assignment, but when I asked about this at the airport they printed me off a new correct one and said their system did show all the seats together.

It looked like the system tries to keep parties together so learning from this I went in and canceled my assignment for the returning flights and sure enough for the return flight we were all assigned seats together in the same row. Luckily, our seats for the flight into DCA were facing east when we flew the River Visual Approach which was an added bonus.

Airport Experience

Since we typically fly WN just about everywhere I was used to having to go to the check-in desk to show proof of age for the infant as a lap-child. I was able to bypass the regular line and go the the "Ascent and Summit" lane where the agent curtly told me it wasn't necessary. We didn't use the elite security lane at SFO because there was no line at security.

SFO-DEN flight was delayed for 1 hour due to weather with no announcements coming from the gate. I did overhear one disgruntled passenger angrily tell the GA as he showed her one his phone that the weather was perfect in DEN to which the agent firmly replied, "Sir, there is a lot of space between here and Denver, have you checked the weather for those 800 miles?" He grunted and huffed off.

Boarding was done by zone with families with children allowed to board with elites and Zone 1. Boarding started about 40 minutes prior to scheduled departure time, and two of our flights left the gate about 10 minutes early. Since I am not in a rush to sit in a metal tube for 3 hours with 2 kids, we waited to be some of the last to board, and since carry-ons cost more than a checked bag, there was plenty of space in the overhead for carry-ons and personal items.

On Board Experience

All of our flights (1 A319, 3 A320s) all had the new slimline seats. I am 5'10" and had plenty of legroom, I imagine if you are 6' or above you would want to consider opting for the stretch seats but avoid the bulkhead on the ABC side of the aircraft. I thought the slimline seats had adequate padding on the bottom but the back was terrible, you could feel the metal frame if you push against the back. I would never fly a red-eye on one of these aircraft. I think they're fine for up to about 2 hours but after that they get rather uncomfortable. The most annoying thing for me was the positioning of the life vest below the seat. The way the hang from the bottom causes them to hit against the back of the seats.

I noticed that they kept the seat belt light off much more that I'm used to on WN. On all our flights they kept it off even during a bit of jostling and even on the descent up until about 10 minutes before landing.

The cabin crew was upfront about the buy-on-board system although they do offer cups of bottled water for free, which is more than NK and G4 offer. Prices are cheaper than you'd pay in the airport for the same thing, $3 for snacks, $2 for soft drinks, juices.

Overall, I wouldn't hesitate to fly Frontier again for short trips where I can fit everything into a personal item or carry-on (as long as I can get carry-on for free) and for short flights. I also wouldn't recommend paying for seat selections unless you have particular seats that you want.

I may beg to differ.

According to the statistics any individual passenger is about as likely to be delayed on Frontier as Southwest. You are correct than in the event of a cancellation Southwest is more likely to be able to accommodate passengers. Frontier's system incorporates fewer connections and I would guess has fewer on average mis-connections than Southwest, but that statistic is not reported.

I just looked at the October fares between PHL and MIA: a route I just flew on Frontier for $15, and which AA/US is clearly unhappy to have the competition.

But other than the weird (and unsustainable) $15 fares, it generally costs $30 more each way to fly AA/US instead of Frontier. That's pretty much Frontier's bag fee. So unless you're the unusual person who can travel with just a backback or insist on checking a bag instead of carrying it aboard, it's hard to understand why you'd fly Frontier unless you were unfamiliar with their additional fees.

My experiance is that Frontier passengers generally do understand the rules and act accordingly. Most don't have carry on bags and make do with a backpack. Of course I don't know how many checked bags. If I have to take a large bag I generally perfer to check it rather than carry it on.

If that were truly the case, I don't think the airline would stay in business. A majority of people must be paying fees.

Peak flying to So. Florida might be between January-May. So, maybe fares will be higher and more varying between AA and F9, where F9 will be still a better value for those looking to save money. I did see some dates in October where F9's base fare is $59 on that route and $29 for DenDeal customers, while AA's fares on nonstops are north of $120 or more.

JetBlue will be starting PHL-FLL next year and adding more seats/competition into the market, so it will be different next year for Frontier than it was this year.

Whatever the case if Frontier can't make money any longer on the route, it's route planners just move the flight elsewhere. Not so fun esp. if PHL loses a route, but F9 is a private company and as consumer there isn't much relationship between us and them, other than them providing transit for a given ticket.

On another note, I still find it odd there is no flight service between Lehigh Valley (ABE) and South Florida.

Looking at population numbers, if Philadelphia's metropolitan area - Berks County is 7 million, and Lehigh Valley + Berks Co. = 1.2 million (as Berks Co is closer to ABE), that is a 85% to 15% ratio between the two neighboring regions. Yet PHL+ACY have a high number of South Florida flights, but ABE has none? Seems like F9 or G4 could offer one nonstop and it'd be popular. ABE is also closer to the Poconos which could be a nice escape for So. Floridians to visit in the summer. But, ABE doesn't fit in the profile of the airport that F9 is seeking anymore.

F9 wants to be in primary major market airports much like it's successful peer Spirit. Spirit has shown success on several of it's PHL routes even before F9 came into PHL.

Back when US and WN were fare matching NK on PHL-Dallas with WN matching on 1-stops, I used to wonder why people would choose Spirit when US was fare matching comparable nonstops. I looked at load factors on NK's PHL-DFW, and indeed NK LF's were still high. It could be also there were a lot of late bookings that help filled NK's flight, when US was likely charging more.

However, I did notice (more recently) that routes like PHL-DFW/LAS on Spirit do offer connections westbound, so Spirit isn't likely entirely depending on O&D. At times, Spirit fares will show up between PHL and Bay Area on kayak as the lowest, with a PHL-DFW/LAS-OAK type itinery.

I've booked two tickets on F9 TPA-DEN-TPA in January. $49 each way, $196 for two RT (plus $100 for a checked bag for each of us, round trip). No connections to worry about in January. Can't beat it. :D

My primary concern is that a lot of the endless series of 1* reviews on Yelp (almost all of which seem to be from people who didn't read what they were buying when the bought the ticket) mention extremely long lines for checking bags at DEN. We have a 6:30 AM flight from DEN-TPA. How early do I need to get there to check bags and still make the 45 minute cut off?

According to their timetable, Spirit now has a grand total of 5 flights (to 5 different destinations) from PHL. This does not seem like a rip-roaring success. :)

Given the isolation and inefficiency of the DEN airport, that's going to be an early morning. What time does their ticket counter open? I would think you'd have to be there at 5 am.

As far as "beating" the fare, I personally would prefer going to Staples and collecting enough UR points for the nonstop flights on UA. Even without Staples promos (like the one this week), the 25,000 points would cost about $150 each (and your time -- which I guess you can spend at the DEN airport at 5 am or at a Staples/Walmart store at the time you choose). You could also apply for a new Chase card and save that trouble.

Indeed, I almost always "replace" a possible cheap Spirit or Frontier flight with an Avios or United MP redemption.

United also only offers 5 nonstop destinations out of PHL. JetBlue only offers 2 and AirTran only offered 2.

It's because it's a spoke, but connections offer more destinations. Spirit also offer more destinations through connections. Go on spirit.com, Select Philadelphia for From, and see the number of destinations in TO. I checked and OAK and LAX are two of the markets where it works. :)

Meh. It's not as if Untied provides a wonderful experience. ;)

The 6:30 AM flight was one of the selling points. Flight times in both directions work better for me on Frontier than on Untied or on Southwest (which would otherwise, well that and the $400+ fare difference, have been my first choice).

Appreciate the advice to arrive at 5 AM. It was between that and 5:30. We'll be staying out near DEN that last night. :D

Oh, I agree that UA doesn't offer a great experience. Heck, I'm a 1K and usually only get a mediocre-at-best experience. But it's still a heck of a lot better than the Frontier experience.

I only originate a couple times a year at DEN, so there are certainly folks way more knowledgeable than me on the subject, but I find flying out of DEN to be a major time sop. The airport was not designed for quickness. Even if you're staying near DEN (btw, a new Westin is going to open soon AT the terminal), it's still a slow process, especially if you have to return a car.

The problem is that IF Frontier was not in that market, the fare on AA/US would probably be much higher. I have noticed that fares out of ATL on routes that Frontier services, AA/US is priced to compete, and Delta is not, although they are lower than they would have been. For this reason alone, I fly Frontier and Spirit as much as possible to do my part to try to help keep them in the market. Cause we all know where those cheap fares on AA/US are headed if Spirit and Frontier abandon a route.

No question that fares are generally MUCH more expensive on routes that Spirit and Frontier do not fly.

But it's a "problem of the commons." Perhaps you feel good about suffering on Spirit and Frontier (and flying both airlines definitely increases one's personal suffering), but it won't make any difference. Most people will choose not to suffer, and these Frontier/Spirit routes will be eliminated. I recommend flying the better airlines cheap while you can.

All of the airlines fly into ATL cheaply, so no need to book Frontier. Frontier is okay if you don't take a carry-on that needs an overhead bin, and if you don't mind paying for your checked bag. I know one person who had a bag slightly heavier than the allowed weight, which meant paying a premium for the bag.

Check the First Class availability via Kayak and see the deals on First Class to ATL. Of course we fly out of DEN, so maybe that is the difference. I have seen First Class seats for as low as $459 RT on Delta flying Sat-Sat. I will take that any time over flying on Frontier at $200 RT with bag fees, etc.

Well at 5'8", I really don't suffer too much, and always travel with bag under the seat as I will be doing tomorrow on Frontier. I think their new seats are just fine for short flights and since my home is ATL, anytime I can fly an airline other than Delta nonstop, I feel good about it. ;) really really good:)

Spirit has done well including increases to several of it's stations, defying failure. It started on BWI-ORD with it announced seasonal. It did well that Spirit continued it through the winter, and even added a second frequency. That doesn't seem to be in path to be eliminated even though AA and WN offer a superior product.

Frontier might have operational issues e.g. limited fleet, and it might have made mistakes with poor route planning, more than it being an issue of product being disliked. It's almost the same product as Spirit.

Spirit has run into resistance in smaller markets like MCI, where it has cut routes. The market is likely not large enough for their model that needs a large low end demand, like some of the markets like ATL, PHL and ORD that originate in larger metropolitan areas. It's not different than Frontier that faced some struggles in MDT. Demand was soft even though Frontier had MDT-MCO while no better carrier operated it nonstop. I remember it was easy getting award tickets on MDT-MCO and low fares during March, when TTN-MCO and PHL-MCO weren't when there was overlap period of these routes. Thus, I wasn't surprised for F9 to shift away from it.

I just remain amazed that you can have a successful business model that relies on tricking leisure travelers who don't know better, while also scaring off higher-paying biz travelers. It seems like a certain recipe for failure -- especially when the established airlines match your fares.

But Spirit suggests the model can work. At least for awhile, and at least in certain markets.

I don't know if it's totally about tricking leisure customers. Maybe some are but I think a lot know the system. Spirit can be great for people that decide to book last minute. It's totally not relevant for higher-paying biz travelers. It's like a Price Rite to a Whole Foods. Different customers being pulled into each store.

Say, a group of two is in DC. These pax hear about some event in Chicago, and decides the same week they want to fly from Chicago to DC. Spirit is selling a $63 fare on BWI-ORD this Thursday. Southwest and United is selling it for $217. In the summer, these numbers are even more spread apart.

Spirit in this case offers a low fare while the others aren't offering a low fare. It's not always being matched. I believe this works best from large markets as there is more crowd. Frontier tried MDT-MDW and it was a disaster. The flight also left Harrisburg early in the morning, making it difficult for Philly or Baltimore pax to even drive up to Harrisburg on the same day for the low fare out of MDT.

Spirit does offer connections too. From what I can see, pax on the PHL-ORD or ATL flight for example can connect onto LAX. I think this can help some onboard load factors, especially when PHL to LAX fares are high, and maybe the 1-stops on the preferred airlines are also high.

I do agree it's somewhat risky for Spirit and Frontier, but Spirit has stuck on PHL-DFW now for quite a bit and while I was a skeptic to it's choice of choosing DFW-PHL instead of DFW-ACY, it proved me wrong, and it's doing fine even when competing directly against US and US fare matching. Even as US merged with AA and AA had the brand power in Dallas, Spirit stayed on.

I don't know if you've ever booked a flight on Frontier bit they are very good about letting you know about fees, you have to say no to things like carry-ons checked bags and seats. When you say no a screen pops up telling you what saying no means and that fees could be higher at the airport. That being said people these days either don't pay attention or only see what they want to see. In addition to repairing and maintaining computers part time, I also work at a big box retailer as a Cashier to make ends meet. The things I've seen people do is amazing. One that is relevant in this case is that one of the self checkout lanes wasn't accepting cash because there was an issue. Even with 2 decent size signs AND a prompt that you had to say yes to, I still have several people dumbfounded, "I'm putting cash in but it's not taking it".

While there are some rough edges to Frontiers policies and their web site, they generally do a pretty good job of informing passengers. I even get emails explaining the fees. I check their twitter account and there seem to be fewer of these kind of "hidden fee" complaints and as noted above some of them are wrong and totally irrational. One guy a while ago refused to understand the difference between a free "personal item" and and q "carry on bag". Some people apparently believe that seat selection fees were mandatory or that they will be charged for water in flight.

There's obviously a fine line between upselling and "trickery." When it comes to the seat selection fee, I think they cross it.

Otherwise, it's pretty obvious that the underlying strategy behind Frontier/Spirit is to entice folks with a low come-on fare, and then add on lots of ancillary fees. This isn't exactly a new marketing gimmick -- it's used in many retail situations.

I do think there's a market for "bad" cheap service, but only if the better airlines are willing to concede this market to Spirit/Frontier. If they're going to "harass" Spirit/Frontier with fare matching, I don't see how Spirit/Frontier can gain a toehold. Their product really does suck, and it's only worth flying if you can save real money. I don't see how the "math" works if you scare off all the customers who actually will pay more than the unit cost for the service.